Nigeria Day 1: Behold the Power of Education

Nelson Mandela has a famous quotation that reads like this “Education is the most powerful weapon we have in the world today.” Amen. 

As educators you literally hold the keys of the future in your hands. You have the divine potential to unlock the greatest resources the Lord has given us...our children. Their ideas, their dreams, their possibilities, their talents, their hopes, their gifting, their imaginations, their character and development; you, as an educator, have a huge role in unleashing, forming and transforming this things in a way that can literally bring change to the world. 

I am honored today to be a part of helping to shape educators in Nigeria. Today I have had the privilege of hearing these teacher’s dreams and desires for themselves, their students, their city and their nation and it is incredible, humbling, awing and inspiring. 

I truly believe Africa holds keys to global restoration and transformation, and these teachers are vital in that process as they directly influence, train and form the youth that will be tomorrow’s leaders. 

Critical thinking is our focus here in Nigeria. How do we become critical thinkers? How do we begin to evaluate what we are doing? How do we train our students to become critical thinkers so that they can develop and become responses to critical issues facing our world today? We mix in with critical thinking the Golden Rule, as interpreted by Eugene Petersen: “Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.” With this we teach the six pillars of character put out by the Josephson institute: trustworthiness, fairness, respect, responsibility, caring and citizenship. Now close your eyes. Imagine what the world would look like if these traits were embodied and partnered with critical thinking. What would the crisis in Syria look like? In US inner cities? In war torn Congo? What if we began to live this out? How different would society look? Would your neighborhood look? Would your family look? I think it is so important and so powerful, critical in our world today. 

I am so excited and encourage by what I have experienced here today with the teachers. They are grasping and wrestling with these concepts and moving beyond a world they have known into a world full of new possibilities. And they will be able to bring their pupils along this journey. I cannot wait to see what Nigeria looks like thirty years from now as a result of the work of these individuals in the life of their students; as a result of what the student’s are doing in bringing these character traits to life. God is so good, amen? 

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” I think the Golden Rule is the way we do this. My challenge to you today is to “ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.” And watch the world be transformed, one act of love at at time.